Rising Stars: Meet Andra Knox of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andra Knox.

Hi Andra, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
How did I get here? Honestly—God. That’s the short answer. Wherever I’m headed next, I trust He’s still leading.

The longer story? I’ve always had this pull to express myself, to live in that space between laughter and truth—comedy and drama. But I was painfully shy as a kid. Then one day, my high school teacher forced me into the fall play. Lead role and all. Terrifying—but that moment cracked something open in me. The fear broke, and suddenly everything felt possible.

I went off to study film and writing at Augsburg College, getting awards in film and becoming the first Film Club President but—I learned more while chasing laughs and shooting sketch videos with friends than I ever did from a syllabus.

Eventually I started to branch out into my love for stand-up comedy. I worked at comedy clubs, staying late to see the headliner’s act, I would be dared into performing by the comics. I gave in. And that first set… changed everything. In the midst of discovering what I was capable of doing, I wasn’t just an actor, I became a comedian in the Twin Cities. Comedy had become my second language after half a decade. But really, it was all storytelling—just different forms of the same calling.

I love acting, improv, drama and comedy. But those expressions have always gone through the WRITING. A good joke has to go through drafts, a screenplay through rough drafts and the character’s dialogue go through a rigorous fitting to a story— a story written. In my first serious relationship, I was in LOVE big time inevitably writing cheesy poems that made my partner. cringe, then laugh in an endearing way. After a serious relationships like that one, heartbreak follows and the poems became an ice axe preventing me from falling deeper into a pit of pain and emotional suffering. The poems went deeper after that, they weren’t a novelty anymore—it was an extension of making sense of pain in my mind not just love.

The writing deepened beyond my interests to be applauded for. I was no longer being the brave adult the kid in me hope to see more of, I was becoming a protector of all versions of myself. The writing became medicine for my inner-wounds salved and wrapped in emotional detangling. Then the writing became a structure, a poetry book, ‘Young Adult: A Perspective Through Poetry & Writings’ I self-published in 2017. A book that has brought me into more rooms and classes I’ve never thought I’d be invited to or teaching in.

Fast forward to now, amongst the spoken word shows & wrapped short-films, I’ve just completed my second poetry book complimented with it’s own poetry album both titled ‘Antidote’ an understanding of profound gratitude and one’s gratefulhood. The project was a six year cross-genre collaboration of love which I’m extremely looking forward to sharing with the world very soon.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Moving to Los Angeles from the Twin Citied. Right before covid took over the world and changed everything small and big. Everyone has suffered from that enormous shift in life. Everything else challenging was variants of depression, my own thoughts fighting and losing mental real estate. Although the writing never stopped, I never planned to be working on my next book for six years, but it’s funny how it needed all that time I was mistaking as an error. Loss in the family has changed me significantly, It made stand-up comedy seem not so important for me to be practicing all of the sudden. Even money has always found it’s way to be a reason why something can’t happen when and how I want it. Even my own bout with health was rocking my world. But I’m still here, so the saying “what doesn’t kill you..” applies heavily in my life at the moment.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My day job is a lead art handler for a private collector here in Los Angeles. BUT I am a writer, author & actor. I specialize in writing but not limited to: Poetry, Short Stories, Screenplays, Press Releases. I’m most likely known for my debut poetry book ‘Antidote: A Perspective Through Poetry & Writings” self-published in 2017.

I’m most proud of my family and how we as a unit have navigated and continue to navigate a lot of loss and tribulations. In my own work, I’m most proud of ‘Young Adult’ because it broke the mold of what I thought, including others, what I was capable of. How much internal inspiration matters. If there was one thing that has changed my life more, it would be the book.

I sunder by simply seeking inside of myself what I want to see in the world. Yes, I am a writer and there are many of us but I don’t know anyone else that has sought out the specific things I seek. From the way I physically look, the clothing I wear, or the words I use in casual dialogue no one mirrors this version of myself. I couldn’t fit in if I wanted to so my work reflects the very maverick I try to maintain to be and express art as uniquely as possible. The best thing you could put into the world is yourself not trying to be anyone else.

What do you like and dislike about the city?
Best things about the city is the food, easily. Nature accessibility (ocean, mountains, desert, even Mexico). Also the hub of creativity that it is, buzzing with spaces that yearn for others to join it and add to it. It’s the unlimitedness of it here in Los Angeles. I’m from the midwest, the pace is different (not good, not bad) and that generates a ceiling for creatives like myself. The people that one must sift through to find, can be immeasurable treasure. But there is a lot people you must meet to know who stays and who goes.

Least likable about LA is the traffic, the flaky people, the parking, the unkempt spaces next to immaculate buildings and neighborhoods. The homelessness & clear mental health issues going unaddressed. The rent. Those things are less heavy in a majority of the United States and that’s very unfortunate.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andraknox.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andraknox/
• Twitter: https://x.com/andraknox_
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5nPSSnfdwmc5yrSK2GPvmB?si=EaOznPr7TMG7yqC4w1_prg

Image Credits
Dakota Whiting Photography
Matt Chute
Nori Rasmussen Martinez
Malanda Jean-Claude
Bobby Rogers
Lisa Flory
“Mek” Chukwuemeka Chikwelu Okafor